Airbus and Tata Set to Elevate India’s Defence Industry with H125 Helicopter Facility

The Tata group and Airbus, the European aerospace company, have inked an accord to jointly produce H125 civilian helicopters in India.

This development followed the adoption of a joint defence production roadmap and a defence space partnership agreement between India and France, following discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Thales, a prominent French defence company, has also announced plans to bring its advanced technological capabilities to India. Thales intends to establish an avionics Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) unit in Delhi to offer top-notch services to its airline customers.

The India-France Defence Production Roadmap, under negotiation for the past year, has the potential to elevate Indian defence producers to a global level by providing access to European technology and exposure to France’s clientele in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, in a press briefing, highlighted that the roadmap would identify opportunities for collaboration in the defence industrial sector, emphasizing co-design, co-development, and co-production.

The goal is to build defence supply chains between the two countries, contributing to security partnerships with nations using similar products.

The partnership encompasses air and space technology, maritime technology (including underwater domain awareness), and equipment and systems related to land warfare. It places significant emphasis on cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber-defence, and autonomous vehicles and platforms.

In collaboration with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), Airbus Helicopters is set to establish a Final Assembly Line (FAL) for H125 civilian helicopters, marking India’s first private helicopter manufacturing facility. The FAL is expected to take 24 months to set up, with deliveries of the first ‘made-in-India’ H125s anticipated to commence in 2026. The location of the FAL will be jointly decided by Airbus and the Tata group.

This proposed helicopter manufacturing facility represents Airbus’s second FAL in India in partnership with TASL, with both companies currently engaged in building the C295 military transport aircraft FAL in Vadodara. Currently, India has fewer than 250 civilian helicopters in service compared to over 15,000 operating in the US.